TRENTON – New Jersey’s pension funds climbed nearly 18 percent through June, then fell back with the global slide in stock prices, according to a state report released today.

The report by the state Division of Investment showed that the pension fund was led by a 32 percent gain in U.S. stocks through the end of the fiscal year, June 30. That was followed by a 25.6 percent gain in international stocks.

But the pension fund in total has dropped nearly 7 percent through Sept. 30, to $66.4 billion.

Return on the state’s pension investments was -15.48 percent in fiscal year 2009 and up 13.36 percent in fiscal year 2010.

The state’s pension fund, in total, now stands slightly below where it was on June 30, 2010, despite the good gain that occurred over the next year. That’s because the state is still not making full contributions to the pension funds and the funds are paying out more in benefits than they are taking in from contributions.

The state pension system is built with the expectation that investments will, on average, advance 8.25 percent a year.